The role of cash holdings, working capital, dividend payout on capital investment

Abstract

An objective of this paper is to investigate the relationship between firms' capital investment spending, cash holdings, and working capital in an expanding Asian financial market. A sample of publicly traded manufacturing firms on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange was examined during the period 2005-2014. The empirical results provide strong and statistically significant evidence on the effect of cash flow on investment. Working capital also exhibits significant relationship with capital investment spending, though the relationship is not as strong and significant as that with cash flow and cash holding. Firms with low dividend payout policy over the sample period depended heavily on cash flow, changes in cash flow and, to a lesser extent, on working capital to finance spending on fixed plant and equipment. These results suggest that the effect of capital investment spending financed by internal cash flow on firm value may depend on a firm's dividend payout.